The Witching Hour
by JewWitch
Summary: On hiatus. The continued adventures of Phoebe and Paige AU, not sisters, femslash . I am going to try to finish this story before 2012!
1. Chapter 1

Hi Peeps!

Well it's been quite a while since my last story...nobody can keep up that kind of momentum all the time, and anyway I've been busy busy busy with my first semester of grad school, which I am happy to report has been wildly successful! so far, anyway. I wrote two enormous papers, one of which has been submitted for possible publication at a conference on internet culture at NYU in the fall, which would be awesome, but I'm not gonna count my chickens or whatnot. anyway, now that summer is here, I can get back to my "pleasure" writing! so here's the start-- enjoy!

**The Witching Hour**

**A New Phoebe & Paige Story by JewWitch**

**Summary**: Picks up about six months after _2 Witches in Love _leaves off. Paige has just begun her work as a fully qualified whitelighter, and Phoebe is getting her feet wet at the paper...as always, the Halliwell clan is trying very hard to strike some sort of balance between their witchy duties, and their personal and professional lives. This is especially true for our youngest couple, who are both eager to establish their careers, and generally get a handle on adult, married life. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it...? As an addendum to my general AU world, I would like to say that I am changing something about Piper's character that has always really bothered me, and that is her internalized self-hatred as a witch. It was always sort of an undercurrent, but when Wyatt came around it really came out-- the way she resisted raising him to be in touch w/ his own basic nature as a magical being, how she shunned magic pre-school because she didn't want him to be surrounded by "all the other freaks"...I just don't feel that Piper is really that kind of person-- that she would really be so much of a slave to the fantasy of "normal." So if you think she's a little different here than on the show in that regard, it's because I give her more credit than Aaron Spelling's little monkeys.

**Rating: R **(just to be safe)

**Chapter One**

"Piper! We're home!" Prue's voice sliced through the sticky summer heat of the manor as the French doors banged open. The oldest Halliwell swept in carrying the youngest on her hip, with his face painted like a lion and a red balloon tied to his wrist. "Wyatt had so much fun at Nathan's birthday party!" Prue breezed through the front hall toward the sun room, intending to settle her nephew down in his playpen before mixing up a batch of frozen margaritas to combat the oppressive July humidity. _What the hell_, she thought as she pushed a damp lock of hair behind her ear. _It's Saturday! _She didn't notice until she'd straightened up again that her youngest sister was sprawled out on her stomach on the couch, fast asleep at four o'clock in the afternoon. She smirked quietly at the picture Phoebe made, one arm dangling off the edge of the cushion, dark hair splayed haphazardly across her face. Prue reached over automatically and tucked her sister's unruly hair back, stroking her forehead lightly.

"Mmmph," Phoebe mumbled unconsciously, rolling onto her back. "...but that's not even a hippopotamus..."

Prue snorted with suppressed laughter, biting her lip when Phoebe tossed her head, a frown creasing her sleep-lined face. "Sssh, honey...it's okay, don't wake up," Prue murmured.

"Mmmhmm..." Phoebe twitched a little, then began to snore softly. Prue left the room grinning, to find Piper in the kitchen taking cranberry-walnut muffins out of the oven.

"Ugh, are you seriously baking in this heat? Tell me you're not making another batch, or I'm leaving right now to go sit in an air-conditioned movie theater."

"I'm sorry, Prue, I can't help it if my day to bring snack to Wyatt's playgroup happened to fall during a heat spell."

"I suppose it would be entirely pointless to suggest you just go out and buy some muffins from the store like everyone else."

"Hi, I'm Piper. Have we met?"

"Ha ha."

The two sisters shared a smirk, then quick as a flash Prue's hand went into the open sack of flour behind her back, sending a cascade of powdery whiteness over Piper's head. Piper gave a shrill, indignant squeak, standing perfectly still with her eyes glued to her sister's like a lion about to pounce.

"Oh no you didn't."

"Yes I did!" Prue crowed, brazenly unabashed. "Whatcha gonna do about it, huh?" Piper leaped forward and grabbed a handful of flour, bolting after her sister who had already fled the scene of the crime. They tore through the front hall, the dining room, and the conservatory, ending only when Prue wheeled around to ward off an attack and tripped over the couch, landing on Phoebe, who simultaneously shrieked, opened her eyes, and levitated five feet off the couch, sending Prue flying into Piper, who dropped the flour she was holding, causing a large-scale, midair explosion. For a moment, no one said anything; the only sounds were coughing and gasping, and Wyatt's delighted laughter.

"What...the fuck?" Phoebe panted, slowly returning to the ground.

"Sorry, sleeping beauty," Piper sniggered, catching her breath. "Your sister decided to get frisky in the kitchen."

"Oh, so now it's my fault?" Though her words might have sounded angry to an outsider, Prue wore a huge grin as she sat sprawled on the floor rubbing flour from her eyes. "Nice reflexes by the way, Pheebs."

"Screw you," Phoebe grumbled.

"You kiss your wife with that mouth?" Prue teased, her grin evaporating as Phoebe's expression turned the corner form grumpy to pitiful. "Oh, honey, I didn't mean-"

"Forget it," Phoebe shook her head, slipping past her flour-coated sisters and running up the stairs. A moment later they heard her door slam.

"Boy, she's going to be a lot of fun this week," Piper sighed.

"I shouldn't have said that," Prue groaned, accepting Piper's hand and allowing herself to be hoisted back to her feet. "I'll go talk to her."

"No, let me," Piper shook her head. "I know how she's feeling right now...sometimes it's really tough being married to a whitelighter. This is the first time she and Paige have really been apart; she just needs a little time." Prue nodded. "C'mon, my little lion," Piper cooed at her painted baby boy, hoisting him up and kissing him. "Let's go cheer up Aunt Phoebe with that smile of yours!"

"...Come in," Phoebe called tonelessly. Her voice sounded muffled and Piper immediately saw why-- she was lying facedown on the bed, a pillow over her head.

"You're going to asphyxiate," Piper said lightly, sitting on the bed next to her sister's limp body and settling Wyatt beside her, who immediately flung himself down giggling, clearly under the impression that it was all a game being played for his benefit. Phoebe mumbled something against the pillow, but it was too muffled for Piper to hear. "What, sweetie?" She probed gently.

"I said..." Phoebe propped herself up on her elbows, revealing flushed, damp cheeks and red eyes, "something doesn't feel right."

"Of course it doesn't-- you're separated from the one you love for the first time. She's out there somewhere orbing into an unknown and dangerous situation, and you can't do anything to help. I know how it feels, Pheebs, you know I do. But Paige is a big girl and she can take care of herself, and so can you." Piper smoothed her sister's hair back as she spoke, gently wiping a few tears away with her thumb.

"No, Pipe," Phoebe said quietly with a shake of her head. "I mean...something _really _doesn't feel right. Something big." Piper frowned.

"Something magic?" She asked seriously, as Wyatt grabbed onto several of Phoebe's fingers and pulled them toward his mouth.

"I'm not sure," Phoebe admitted, gazing down at her nephew as he teethed contentedly on her new manicure. "I just...everything feels like the moment before something, like when you see a glass fall and you know it's about to break. I'm living in this state of constant suspense...I've been exhausted all week." Piper thought that Phoebe did look a little drawn, but attributed her sister's uneasiness to far more mundane roots than Phoebe did herself.

"Don't you think it's just possible that you're on edge waiting to see Paige home safe from her first whitelighter assignment?"

Phoebe sighed. Wyatt gave a delighted squeal, wiggling on the bed as he drooled all over Phoebe's fingers. A grudging grin crept onto her face.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"Of course I'm right. I'm the little old married lady who gives advice to the newlyweds."

"Oh, please," Phoebe laughed. "You've been married two years and you own a nightclub!"

"Yeah, well--" but Piper's rebuttal to her sister's assertion of her hipness was lost beneath the sound of an ear-splitting crash. "Wyatt, danger!" Piper whispered to her son, a shimmering blue forcefield erupting around him. Then the two sisters bolted for the stairs, finding their third sister cornered by the most bizarre demon any of them had ever seen-- and that was saying something. It looked more like a monster from a child's storybook than a demon, with the elongated head and sharply ridged back of a crocodile, the claws of an enormous bird, and the grayish, leathery body of a hippopotamus.

"Prue!" Phoebe shrieked from the stairs, frightened to see her big sister in such a vulnerable position. The demon looked up and let out a deep, reverberating roar, the sound so excruciatingly loud that it felt to Phoebe as if someone were squeezing her brain from inside her head. Then everything went black.

When she next opened her eyes, Phoebe was flat on her back at the foot of the stairs. She had a burning pain in her leg, and no sense whatsoever of any time passing. The sky outside the mullioned windows was dusky, reflecting a murky twilight that told Phoebe she must have been lying there for several hours. After a moment spent staring blankly up at the ceiling, she became aware of her sisters on either side of her, both of them bent low over her throbbing leg.

"...sure we shouldn't call Paige and Leo?" Prue was asking tensely, neither of them noticing that Phoebe's eyes had opened. "What if it's more serious than it looks? What if that thing had venom in its claws?"

"You got scratched too, Prue. Do you feel poisoned?"

"No, but--" As she spoke, Prue probed the gash on Phoebe's thigh, causing her newly awakened sister to gasp in surprise and pain.

"Pheebs, you're awake!" Prue cried, throwing her arms around her sister's neck while Piper hugged her stomach. Phoebe, who wasn't quite sure whether Prue's statement was accurate, settled for the most obvious question.

"What the hell happened?"

"It was really weird," Piper said, frowning. "When that crocopottamus thing started screaming, you sort of spazzed out-- I thought you were having a seizure or something. Then you blacked out and fell down the stairs, and the really weird part is that it seemed like that was what it wanted-- the demon, I mean-- it threw Prue across the room to get to you."

"I thought it was going to swallow you whole," Prue admitted in a small, frightened voice, hugging her baby sister tightly.

"But it just slashed your leg, and when your blood got on its claws, it-- it licked it off."

"That thing tasted my blood?" Phoebe asked, her stomach clenching with revulsion.

"Yeah," Piper nodded. "And then--"

But Phoebe didn't hear what came next, as she scrambled to get away from her sisters, making it only a few feet before she threw up all over the hardwood floor.

"Sorry," she whimpered miserably when she could breathe again, putting a hand to her forehead to steady herself.

"It's okay, baby, shhh, it's not your fault," Piper crooned, gathering Phoebe's trembling body into her arms and rubbing her back. Phoebe started to cry, and Piper looked up worriedly at Prue. "Call them," she said shortly.

"Paige!" Prue yelled into thin air. "Leo! Get your incandescent asses back here right now!" A moment later, two fields of bright white lights erupted in the foyer. They looked windswept and breathless, but physically unharmed from whatever whitelighter business they had been engaged in. When they saw Phoebe and Piper on the floor, both dropped to their knees with hands outstretched and already glowing. Paige healed Phoebe's slashed leg before any words were spoken.

"Baby, you okay?" She asked softly when she was done, her hand threading through Phoebe's hair and rubbing the back of her neck, which always helped to calm the young witch after tense or frightening moments. This time, however, Phoebe burst into tears and threw her arms around Paige's neck, clinging to her tightly. Prue began to explain, as best she could, what had gone down while Paige slowly soothed Phoebe, who laid her head against the crook of Paige's neck, too overwhelmed to feel embarrassed that she was acting so childish.

"So then the demon-- what did you call it, Piper?"

"Crocopottamus," Piper repeated, returning from the upstairs with Wyatt in her arms, "Cause it was kind of, half crocodile and half hippo. Really weird de--"

"Holy shit!" Prue gasped, everyone turning to stare at her. "Pheebs, you had a premonition of that thing!"

"No I didn't," Phoebe frowned, her voice gravelly from crying.

"Yeah you did," Prue nodded vigorously, "in your sleep! You said, _that's not even a hippopotamus_. And then you got this real intense look on your face. That _can't_ be a coincidence."

"And you _just_ said," Piper slowly added, "You felt like something bad was coming."

"And you said I was just missing Paige and projecting."

"Well it looks like I was wrong, doesn't it?" None of the Halliwell sisters were generally keen to admit they'd been wrong, especially to each other. They all looked around rather grimly.

"Book of Shadows," Prue hummed in a would-be upbeat voice.

"Ugh," Phoebe groaned, pressing her face back against Paige's shoulder. "Can I pass this time, please? I'm still kind of nauseous."

"But I healed you," Paige frowned.

"You can't heal physical reactions to emotional stress, Paige," Prue reminded her. "We still have to deal with that the old-fashioned way."

"I just need to go get some sleep," Phoebe mumbled, rising unsteadily to her feet. "I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning."

"You're really gonna go to sleep at four thirty?" Paige asked worriedly.

"Four thirty?" Phoebe repeated blankly. "It's almost dark!"

"That happened while you were unconscious," Piper explained, which didn't really explain much. "You were only out for a few minutes, Pheebs."

"And we're just now discussing this?" Phoebe exclaimed incredulously. "The sun just set in five goddamn minutes, and you're just now telling me?"

"Easy there, cowgirl," Paige said in a pacifying voice. "We were all more worried about you than the sun, I guess."

"Don't fucking patronize me," Phoebe snapped, turning on her heels and stomping up the stairs. For the second time that evening, Piper and Prue heard their sister's door slam. Paige looked simultaneously stricken, and utterly surprised.

"Honey, she's just been so on edge worrying about you since you left," Piper said, giving her little sister-in-law a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "She didn't mean anything by that, and you know it." Paige nodded, looking up the stairs forlornly.

"Should I...give her some space or something?"

"Are you crazy?" Prue looked at her incredulously. "Go up there and comfort her!" Paige didn't need to be told twice.

"So, you and me on research?" Piper asked. Prue nodded.

"I guess that leaves me to go see what _they_ know," Leo said, chucking his thumb toward the ceiling.

"Anything related to either the demon, or the mysterious onset of twilight," Prue confirmed. With a kiss for his wife, Leo was gone. "C'mon, sis, let's hit the book."

Upstairs, another soft knock prompted Phoebe to mumble a half-hearted _come in_. Paige opened the door, lingering uncertainly by the lintel.

"Hey," she said tentatively. Phoebe raised her head.

"You don't have to knock, dummy. It's your room too." Her words were not exactly harsh; just cranky and exhausted.

"Okay," Paige nodded, coming closer to the bed. "It just seemed like maybe you wanted to be alone."

"Alone with you," Phoebe corrected. Paige grinned and crawled onto the bed, the two of them instantly entwined.

"Sorry I was mean," Phoebe said quietly, closing her eyes as Paige stroked her hair.

"S'okay, baby...I know you didn't mean it."

"That doesn't make it okay," Phoebe said firmly, opening her eyes. "I don't ever want you to feel, like, afraid to piss me off."

"You want me to piss you off?" Paige frowned.

"No, Paigey," Phoebe shook her head impatiently. "I just don't want you to walk on eggshells, or be afraid to say what's on your mind, just because I'm acting like a brat. I know I can be that way sometimes...I mean, I'm the youngest, you know?" Paige nodded. "Promise you won't let me get away with it."

"Promise," Paige smiled, leaning in to kiss her.

"Now all we have to worry about is the enormous demon and the five-minute sunset."


	2. Chapter 2

The Witching Hour

Chapter 2

By JewWitch

Paige awoke when it was still dark, but the annoyingly cheerful twittering of the birds outside told her that the sun would be rising soon. It wasn't the songbirds that had woken Paige, however-- it was the cold, empty space in the bed beside her.

"Phoebe?" She called sleepily. Getting no answer, Paige rose and padded across the room, taking her robe off the hook and slipping it over her bare shoulders before tiptoeing downstairs. A light was visible under the kitchen door, where she found her favorite sight, standing at the marble countertop in her red kimono. Phoebe's dark hair was piled onto her head in a messy twist, held with a banana clip, and Paige's eyes were drawn to the perfect, delicate line of her neck, the hollow of her throat. She leaned against the doorway, a sigh escaping her lips as she let her head fall back lazily, one foot pressed against the wall so her bare leg slipped out of her robe. Phoebe looked up with her fingers still in her mouth, munching on some midnight snack.

"Got a craving for something?" Paige asked coyly, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. Phoebe grinned.

"Since you ask," Phoebe purred, walking slowly across the kitchen until she was standing between Paige's legs, "I could really go for something sweet." The inside of Paige's thigh brushed Phoebe's hip as Phoebe leaned up against her, tugging the lock of hair from Paige's fingers and using it to pull her close. Their breathing quickened, but Phoebe stopped short of actually touching Paige's lips with her own; instead she hovered, no more than an inch away from her goal, teasing.

"Do you want me, Paigey?" She murmured, her fingertips gliding up and down Paige's side, still holding her hair firmly in her other hand.

"Yes...yes," Paige panted, her breath shallow and erratic. "More than anything, baby. More than the sun."

"More than the sun..." Phoebe echoed, a bare leg slipping out of her kimono to press between Paige's. It was so hot there, inner thigh to inner thigh, hotter than the center of a solar system. Paige gasped, eyes falling shut as her back arched involuntarily. Phoebe loved the feeling that she could make Paige's body move like that, so independent of thought or intention, as if Paige were a marionette attached to her strings. Of course, Phoebe was on strings too, and when Paige's back arched, her thigh slammed into Phoebe, hard, making her writhe just as helplessly. Paige opened her eyes and growled, pushing Phoebe to the ground, only to be forced back again to the ceiling by their combined magical charge.

By the time they floated back to earth, it felt as if hours had passed, but the sky outside remained a deep, pre-dawn grey. Too limp to stand right away, they landed gently on the kitchen island and lay there, legs entangled, sighing softly while Phoebe rubbed Paige's stomach lightly, and Paige ran her fingers through Phoebe's silky hair. They teased each other with their toes. Presently, Phoebe lifted her head and reached for the container she'd been nibbling from before Paige had found her, pulling out a large handful of raisins.

_"That's _what you're eating?" Paige frowned.

"What?" Phoebe shrugged, her voice slightly muffled by chewing.

"I dunno, it's just kind of weird. I've never seen a person just eat, like, a whole handful of raisins. It's kind of like eating ketchup right from the bottle."

"It is not," Phoebe said seriously with a shake of her head. "Ketchup is a condiment."

"So are raisins."

"Nu-uh!" Phoebe shook her head again, emphatically. "Raisins are a topping. Like, nuts or M&M's or banana slices."

"Those are ice cream toppings."

"Exactly!" Phoebe popped another handful of the items in question into her mouth. "Toppings!"

"You are such a freak," Paige laughed.

"Well then you're Mrs. Freak," Phoebe shrugged, quirking an eyebrow.

"I can live with that," Paige grinned, kissing Phoebe slowly and thoroughly, until her toes curled up. Phoebe sighed contentedly, sitting up and stretching with an enormous yawn.

"What time is it?" Paige glanced at the clock and frowned.

"That can't be right. Seven thirty? The sun isn't even up yet!" Almost as if on cue, they heard feet on the stairs. Both jumped guiltily down off the island just as the kitchen door swung open, revealing Prue.

"What the fuck is going on? Is there a fucking eclipse or something?" Prue snapped, rubbing her eyes irritably. Phoebe thought that Faith was beginning to rub off on her sister. Then again, maybe she just needed her coffee. The automatic coffeepot was already brewing, the small timer blinking. It was set for 7:30 am.

"What the fuck _is_ going on?" Phoebe echoed. "Is it going to stay dark forever?" The suggestion was so ridiculous, they all wanted to laugh; yet the fact that it had now been dark for fifteen hours, since the instantaneous sunset at 4:30 the afternoon before, made the idea of eternal night uncomfortably tangible.

"Okay, time for a family conference." The door swung open to reveal a very tense Piper, looking far more alert than she normally did at this hour. Leo came behind her with a gurgling Wyatt in his arms, the only one in the room who didn't seem particularly alarmed by the current situation.

"What did you guys find out from the book?" Phoebe asked her sisters, hastily tying the sash on her kimono and hoping no one would catch it, as they were all so preoccupied.

"A big fat nothing," Prue replied sourly.

"The same with the Elders," Leo said grimly. "They don't know what caused the darkness, and they've never heard of the demon you described."

"So it's something totally new," Piper frowned, her brows knitting together.

"Or something totally old," Paige injected. Everyone looked at her. "Well, remember that whole, goddess of destruction thing that came after me and Pheebs?" She cocked her head at them, hands on her hips. "It wouldn't be the first time something ancient came after us. Something too old to be in the Book."

"Prue, you should call Faith, right now," Piper said as she opened the refrigerator and began pulling out breakfast things. "We need Scooby backup."

"Already did," Prue admitted, pouring the first cup of coffee from the dispenser, and drinking it black. "Actually, I was about to call her, and she called me."

"So it's night everywhere...not just in San Francisco," Paige confirmed quietly.

"Well, no, it's not-- not exactly," Phoebe pointed out, squinting out into the dim gray light. "It's like, _almost_ light. Just like last night it was suddenly almost dark. Like something's keeping it in limbo."

"Something like a big freaky demon with a hundred pointy teeth?" Piper asked sarcastically, slamming a pan down on the stove. She began cracking eggs into a large glass bowl, beating them with unnecessary gusto.

"How can you be thinking about breakfast at a time like this?" Phoebe demanded incredulously.

"Well we still have to eat, don't we?"

"What did Faith say?" Leo asked Prue, ignoring the sisters' bickering. "Do they know anything?"

"No, not yet," Prue shook her head tersely. "But I described the demon that attacked us, and they're going to call us if they turn anything up...I wouldn't count on anything, though. They've got their hands kinda full right now."

"Right." Paige nodded. "Eternal night, not so good for the Hellmouth."

"Oh, God." Phoebe blanched. "I didn't even think about that...we should go down there and help them! If they're busy fighting vampires 24/7, they're never gonna get any research done, and we already know we've got squat here."

"Agreed," Prue said curtly. She was 100 business now that her coffee had kicked in. "I was hoping you'd say that. Right after breakfast we'll get orbing."

"Good, it's settled," Piper nodded, putting a large serving plate of scrambled eggs in the center of the table.

"Ugh," Phoebe groaned, her face going deathly pale. "Those eggs smell--" Suddenly she clamped her hand over her mouth and bolted from the room, knocking over her chair.

"I thought she was feeling better since last night," Prue frowned, an expression of concern on her face.

"She was," Paige shrugged helplessly. "I'm just gonna--" she chucked her thumb over her shoulder, and then turned and ran after Phoebe. She found her in the bathroom, being violently sick, down on her knees in front of the toilet. Paige got down beside her, gathering her hair in one hand and rubbing her quivering back with the other. Gasping, Phoebe leaned her forehead against the back of her hand, and whimpered softly.

"Fuck," she panted. "I fucking hate puking." Paige reached over Phoebe's shoulder and flushed the toilet, then pulled down one of the hand towels and ran it under the cold water tap, holding it against the back of Phoebe's neck. "Oh..." Phoebe sighed. "That feels good." Paige got up to fill a Dixie cup with water.

"Spit," she ordered, and Phoebe did.

"Thanks, angel girl," Phoebe smiled sheepishly. "I don't know what's wrong with me...I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" Paige echoed. "What the hell are you sorry for?"

"Well..." Phoebe shrugged, looking at the bathmat beneath her, "it's not exactly the slickest way to end a night of wild sex on the kitchen table."

"We didn't have sex on the kitchen table," Paige reminded her, with a blushing grin. "We just landed there afterwards."

"A mere technicality." Phoebe looked up form the floor, and Paige held her face firmly with both hands, giving her a classic what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you look.

"Don't be sorry, babe," she said quietly. "I want everything with you-- the hot, sexy parts, the totally insane parts, the witchy parts, the sad and scary parts-- even the holding-your-hair-back-while-you-puke parts. I. Want. All of it."

"Lucky me," Phoebe murmured, smiling shyly. Then she gave a squeal of alarm, leaping back as Paige leaned in to kiss her. "For God's sake, at least let me brush my teeth!"

"If you must," Paige shrugged.

Once Wyatt had been dropped at the nursery in Magic School, the Halliwells orbed into the Magic Shop-- where, apparently, Marshall Law had recently been instituted. Much of the countertop had been sacrificed to barricade the front door, and most of the bookshelves were propped against the windows.

"Nice to know we're not the only ones with demon-related redecorating problems," Piper said glibly to her husband.

"P, you're here!" Faith's arms wound tightly around Prue's neck, hugging her with all her slayer strength. "Jesus, am I glad to see you." Prue smiled sadly at her girlfriend, knowing all too well the impulse to gather all her loved ones close at hand when dangerous magical catastrophes happened.

"I'm glad I'm here too, babe. What can we do to help?"

"Well first off, you can ID this demon for us." She pulled Prue back toward the round research table where Tara, Willow and Anya were gathered. About fifty large and heavy books were strewn across the table, some open to various hideous illustrations. Right in the middle was the largest tome of all, open to a very ancient looking engraving of what was clearly a hippopotamus with the head of a crocodile.

"Oh! That's it!" Piper squealed. "That's the crocopotamus!"

"Actually, she's called Tawaret," Willow offered. "That's, um, ancient Egyptian. Also known as Taurt, Taueret, Tuart, Ta-weret, and Taueret, and in Greek--"

"Cut to the chase, Red," Faith said impatiently.

"Um, right." Willow flipped a few more pages. "Well, Tawaret was originally the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Since Apep was viewed as residing below the horizon, and only present at night, Tawaret was considered the mistress of the horizon and the twilight-- the witching hour. It's the time when the veil between worlds is thinnest...when demons have the most chance of breaking through."

"Is anyone else getting a migraine?" Piper asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"What do you mean, _originally?" _Phoebe frowned.

"Well, that's where it gets a little confusing," Willow admitted, pulling another dusty volume toward herself. "There are some, um, conflicting accounts."

"Such as?" Paige prompted.

"Some Egyptian goddess cults didn't view her as a demon at all...they actually saw her as a deity of protection."

"Protection?" Prue exclaimed incredulously.

"Female hippos are among the most vicious protectors of their young anywhere in nature," Willow explained. "Tawaret became seen, very early in some parts of Egyptian history, as a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth, and pregnant women wore amulets with her name or likeness to protect their pregnancies. Her image could also be found on knives made from hippopotamus ivory, which would be used as wands in rituals to drive evil spirits away from mothers and children."

"So is she evil, or isn't she?" Prue frowned.

"Of course she's evil!" Piper shrieked. "She tried to eat Phoebe!"

"No she didn't," Phoebe said slowly. "You said she barely touched me. Or Prue. She could have killed us both in a heartbeat, but all she wanted was a taste of my blood." She pressed a hand to her churning stomach, willing it not to rebel again.

"Tawaret drank your blood?" Anya quirked an eyebrow across the table. "Have you got a bun in the oven, or what?"

"Of course not," Phoebe rolled her eyes at Anya's typical crudeness. But her sisters were both looking at her with dawning incredulity. "Oh, knock it off, you two! I can't exactly get pregnant by accident, can I?"

"But Pheebs, it all fits," Prue said quietly, ticking off points on her fingers. "Falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon, that dizzy spell you had the other day-- plus the obvious morning sickness."

"That was _not_ morning sickness," Phoebe exclaimed impatiently. "I was just...sick. In the morning."

"And the weird, 3am food cravings," Paige said slowly, her eyes suddenly very wide. "Pheebs, what if--?"

"No! No _what if!" _Phoebe said emphatically. "We can't do it by accident! Leo said." The whitelighter and brother-in-law in question coughed uncomfortably. They all looked at him. Leo gave his wife a pleading, deer-in-the-headlights look, but she just crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow expectantly.

"Well, I, um..." Leo cleared his throat again awkwardly. "What I meant was, you know...you both have to, um...really want it. The baby, that is. An you have to be completely in tune with each other, when, um...when it happens."

"And by _it_, you mean...?" Prue trailed off. "Okay, ew."

"He means they both have to come at the exact same moment," Anya clarified with a typical lack of self-consciousness. "Which almost never happens for Xander and me. He's just so--"

"Aaaigh!" Willow shrieked, covering her ears. "Anya, please, I'm begging you."

"Anyway, we haven't even talked about it yet," Phoebe said reasonably, trying to regain some semblance of rationality amid the insane discussion now being held as to whether her wife had managed to accidentally get her pregnant. "Not since that premonition last year, anyway. We weren't even thinking about it!"

"Are you sure?" Prue challenged, an annoyingly knowing look on her face. At a complete loss, Phoebe looked at Paige.

"Were you thinking about it?"

"I dunno...I didn't _think_ I was thinking about it..."

"It's not about thinking, anyway," Anya shrugged. "Your magic is controlled by your emotions, not your intellect. It doesn't matter if you were thinking it; what matters is that you feel it, deep down inside." Paige and Phoebe were giving each other a disbelieving look.

"Maybe we should go to the drug store and get one of those kits," Paige said hollowly.

"Paige--" Phoebe sighed impatiently, as if the whole thing were patently ridiculous.

"What, Phoebe? You're saying you're absolutely sure there's no chance? We've got a million questions here and no answers...at least we can have one simple yes or no."

"Oh...all right."

"We'll be right back," Paige smiled weakly around the room, grabbed Phoebe's hand and orbed out.

"Hope they make it to the store okay," Piper shook her head disbelievingly. "They both looked like they were about to faint."


	3. Chapter 3

**The Witching Hour **

**Chapter 3**

**By JewWitch**

Paige stood unblinkingly in front of a shelf full of hairspray, biting her lip and scowling. It just hadn't occurred to her until this moment that she had absolutely no idea where in the store to find the pregnancy tests, and she just couldn't bring herself to walk up to one of the pimply-faced, nineteen-year-old Safeway employees and ask. First she'd thought they'd have to be by the tampons...it made sense that if you didn't need one, you'd need the other, didn't it? But apparently whoever was in charge of product placement at Safeway headquarters didn't follow this particular line of reasoning, so Paige had next imagined that they might be next to the condoms, another item she had no idea where to find. Why should she? Pacing up and down the aisles, Paige became steadily more agitated, both for herself and for Phoebe, whose nerves were streaming from the car outside like a five alarm fire. The drive from the manor had been entirely silent, and Paige had offered to go in alone more out of nervousness than anything else. She wasn't sure who was more freaked out at this point, only that their emotions were bouncing back and forth off their telepathic connection, amplifying each other's anxiety exponentially.

Paige stared harder at the sea of products in front of her, trying not to think about the blind terror coming from Phoebe in the parking lot. She didn't want to let herself ask why her wife's feelings about the possibility of being pregnant weren't happier; she was afraid to ask anything she might not like the answer to, and in her insecurity she groped for some clue as to how she ought to act (she had a brief moment of internal amusement when she considered the fact that this nervous-boyfriend-daddy thing was certainly the most butch she'd ever felt). The drive over had been so engulfed in buzzing silence, that when they had finally arrived it had been automatic for Paige to offer to go in on her own and let Phoebe wait in the car, the theory being that Paige could at least spare her this one stressful moment. But the longer she paced up and down the aisles, unable to locate her target, the more foolish and useless she felt. What the hell kind of idiot was she? How could she not have realized she wouldn't know where to find the tools of reproductive planning? The last time she'd seen a condom, it had been rolled onto a banana in ninth grade health class!

Finally, Paige gave up and asked the pharmacist, who, she reasoned, was at least some sort of medical professional. Whether or not the kindly old Asian man gave her an indulgent smile along with the small pink box she couldn't say, as she kept her eyes averted the whole time, cheeks burning. She also bought a soda, and toyed momentarily with some roses, but quickly decided against that out of fear of jinxing it. All in all, it wasn't more than ten minutes until she was back in the car, but it felt as if she'd been gone far too long and ought to account for her whereabouts.

"I got you an orange soda," she offered meekly.

"Thanks." If Paige had expected more than this monosyllabic answer, she didn't show it. The drive home was as silent as the drive out.

"Want me to come in with you?" Paige offered as she handed over the small package, both of them back in the manor and hovering in the bathroom doorway.

"I don't think that would be very good for our sex life," Phoebe said tonelessly. Paige got the feeling she'd been trying to make a joke, but hadn't quite managed the required levity.

"Okay." Paige sat on the floor in the middle of the upstairs hall while Phoebe shut the bathroom door. She hugged her knees, and tried to keep her mind blank. Whatever the little blue strip said was fine. It was true that they hadn't planned this, hadn't even discussed it; surely a few more years of adulthood would do them both good. It would probably be better if it were negative. Then the angelic smile and huge brown eyes of the child they'd seen in their premonition flashed across Paige's eyes, and she knew exactly what she was praying for. The fact that Phoebe seemed to be hoping the opposite was unnerving, but it doubled Paige's resolve to be supportive no matter the outcome.

A few more minutes went by in silence, then the bathroom door creaked open, sending Paige scrambling to her feet. Phoebe looked as tense as ever, eyes wet and bright. Then she shook her head, holding up the still unopened box.

"I can't do it, Paigey." She blinked once, sending a flood of tears down her cheeks.

"Oh, sweet girl," Paige sighed, gathering Phoebe into her arms as she began to sob, and tracing patterns on her trembling back. "Please don't cry, my angel..." Paige continued rubbing Phoebe's back until her breathing had calmed, then drew back so they were looking into each other's eyes. Terrified, Paige steeled herself to ask the question she'd been dreading.

"Baby...don't you want this?"

"Oh, Paigey, you know I do," Phoebe said quietly.

"Then why...?"

"It's just so sudden...I mean, after we got together, I thought I wouldn't have to worry about getting pregnant by accident anymore, and I...I...what if I'm not ready? For God's sake, I still have cartoon characters on my toothbrush! I stay up too late, my car is a deathtrap, I have overdue library books-- I haven't even been taking a multi-vitamin! What if our kid is born with Spina Bifida or something? I'm completely irresponsible. I can't be someone's mother!" Phoebe's lip quivered-- she was practically hyperventilating, and Paige suddenly felt like a complete idiot for not having anticipated that Phoebe might feel this way.

"Oh, Pheebs," Paige sighed, a sad smile blossoming on her face. "This isn't about you being irresponsible-- which, by the way, you're not. It's about your mom, isn't it? She died before you even knew her; you never had a role model for motherhood, so you think that means you don't know how to be a mom."

"Well...yeah...it's true," Phoebe sniffed, staring at the worn carpet and picking the fuzz apart between her fingernails.

"It is _not_ true," Paige admonished, shaking her head. "How can you even think that, you nut? Wyatt adores you! You've got more love in you than anyone I've ever known...the rest we'll figure out as we go." Phoebe looked up doubtfully from beneath damp eyelashes. "You're gonna be an incredible mom," Paige murmured, her voice full of love as she swiped a few tears from Phoebe's cheek. "Whether it's in nine months, or another nine years." A small, reluctant smile tugged Phoebe's lips as she covered Paige's hand with her own, and kissed her.

"You always know what to say," she sighed, leaning her forehead against Paige's shoulder and breathing in her familiar scent of orange blossoms.

"I should've said it an hour ago," Paige said ruefully.

"Well, you were kinda busy with your drugstore treasure hunt." Paige could hear the grin in Phoebe's voice, even though her face was still hidden.

"Wait a minute--" Paige pulled back, leveling an outraged look at Phoebe, which only served to turn her grin into suppressed giggles. "You _knew_ I had no idea what I was doing in there..."

"I kinda figured."

"And you let me go anyway?"

"You offered."

"You used my panic for your personal amusement."

"Was that not your intention?"

"Oh, you are so dead!" Paige exclaimed, jumping on Phoebe and pinning her to the floor, tickling her ribcage until she was shrieking with laughter and begging for mercy. They both lay there, panting, for several minutes. Paige glanced sideways at Phoebe, and propped herself up on one elbow.

"So," she said cautiously, "are you ready to find out if you're having my baby now?" Phoebe tilted her head, regarding Paige with an unreadable expression.

"Okay." She grinned nervously. "Let's do it."

"I think we got that part covered already." Phoebe smacked Paige on the shoulder.

"Goofball."

A minute later, Phoebe came out of the bathroom again, her fist held out in front of her as if she were holding a bomb. "I can't look," she said breathlessly, and thrust the test results at Paige with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Paige, who was levitating upside down to distract herself from her nerves, took the tiny stick from Phoebe's outstretched hand without bothering to right herself first. A loud crash made Phoebe open her eyes, to find Paige sprawled at her feet, blinking dazedly.

"Jesus! Are you okay?" Phoebe dropped to her knees, smoothing Paige's hair back and quickly looking her over for injuries. Paige grabbed her wandering hands, and held them tightly.

"Yes." Phoebe blinked uncomprehendingly for a moment.

"Yes...?"

"Yes! Yes!" Paige laughed, sitting up and throwing her arms around the shell-shocked form of her lover.

"I'm really pregnant? Really?" Phoebe had never understood the expression _tears of joy_ before, but now it made sense-- she wasn't sure if she was laughing or sobbing.

"Really, baby," Paige nodded, kissing her all over her face. "Oh, goddess, I love you..." Phoebe kissed her back, pushing her up against the wall. "Can't wait...to tell everybody..."

"They can wait an hour or two," Phoebe mumbled, her hands raking up Paige's back.

"Mmm...definitely..." Paige growled softly, nipping at Phoebe's exposed throat. Phoebe groaned in pleasure. Then she jerked against Paige in an odd way, as if she'd gotten an electric shock, a small gasp coming form the back of her throat. Paige opened her eyes, and froze in horror. At least a hundred razor-sharp teeth were bared less than a foot above their heads, connected to the monstrous demon they'd almost managed, in their excitement, to forget. It's sharp, talon-like claws were dripping with blood-- Phoebe's blood.


	4. Chapter 4

hi peeps!

I am sorry, once again, for the unusually long delay in updates...this was straight-up writer's block. What can I say? It happens to the best of us. But I'm pretty sure I'm over it now...promise there won't be another month before the next one!

love, JewWitch :)

**The Witching Hour**

**Chapter 4**

**By JewWitch**

"Paige, stop it." Prue dropped to her knees and grabbed her sister-in-law by the shoulders as she shook her head dazedly, sprawled on the ground after another failed orb. Paige pushed her off and immediately tried again, with the same result-- as soon as she orbed out, it was as if her orbs were bounced off some kind of invisible wall, sending her forcefully back to the floor. This time she reappeared with a bloody nose.

"Paige!" Piper yelled, grabbing one arm as Prue grabbed her other. "This isn't helping Phoebe!" Finally Paige looked up, a broken, utterly lost look in her eyes as a stream of blood dripped steadily down her upper lip. "We'll get her back, honey," Piper said firmly, squeezing her hand as Leo leaned across her and healed Paige's bloody nose. "We always do." Paige looked from Piper, to Leo, to Prue, opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it again.

"I couldn't protect her," she whispered. "That demon...it just swooped in and, and...I couldn't do anything."

"Well we're gonna do something now," a grim, steely voice said behind Prue. Paige looked up and noticed Faith, who had been standing silently up till now, arms crossed, her tone low and commanding-- this, Paige realized, was what Prue was always talking about when she spoke of Faith going into _slayer mode_. "That Fantasia reject is not keeping your wife, angel girl."

"But she's hurt," Paige whispered, shaking her head, her eyes staring unseeingly at the tiny fibers in the hallway carpet. "What if the baby's hurt, too?" An unnatural silence filled the room.

"So...Phoebe's pregnant?" Prue asked, wondrously. "My baby sister's having a baby?" Paige nodded dumbly. This was not how it was supposed to be.

"Can you sense her, Paige?" Leo asked, ignoring the looks of amazement passing between his wife and her sister. "Even if your orbs are blocked?" Paige pressed a hand over her stomach, and nodded.

"She's scared," Paige said quietly, still not looking at anyone.

"Scared is good," Faith shrugged. Paige looked up in outrage, snapped out of her trance of helplessness. "It means she's alive, and conscious, and aware of her surroundings."

"Oh...yeah..." Paige nodded dumbly.

"Bright side?" Prue offered tentatively.

"Oh, I dare you," Piper retorted sarcastically.

"It's not nighttime anymore." They all looked out the window as Prue gestured toward the sky outside, where a pale sunrise was peaking.

"We have to assume that, whatever's going on, Tawaret wants her alive-- at least for now," Faith said brusquely, "because if she'd wanted her dead, she could've killed her on the spot." Paige groaned, and scrambled up from the floor, flinging herself into the bathroom. A moment later they all heard the sound of her retching.

"Paige?" Piper got up and followed her into the bathroom. "Are you okay?"

"Not me," Paige panted, leaning over the toilet and taking deep, steadying breaths. "It's Phoebe. I think it's just...morning sickness," she finished unsteadily, accepting the cup of water Piper handed her with trembling fingers. "It's okay now."

"But you haven't felt sick when she's gotten sick before," Piper pointed out with a frown. Paige shrugged.

"I'm going to go check with the elders," Leo said, an oddly hopeful look on his face. "If your magical connection is being amplified-- combined with the fact that she's somewhere you can't orb-- it probably means she's left the physical plane. I'll see what I can find out about alternate dimensions that have the ability to cloak themselves." Glancing swiftly to Piper for her nod of approval, Leo disappeared in a glowing swirl of orbs.

"I'll call the Magic Shop," Faith said, flicking open her cell phone. "Get the gang on it."

"And we'll hit the book," Piper glanced over to Prue. "See if we can cobble together a vanquishing spell for Tawaret, now that we know what it is we're dealing with." Paige was the only one who remained silent. She was still kneeling on the floor, staring into space.

"Paige?" Prue said tentatively. "Sweetie?"

"I think I'm just gonna stay here for a few minutes," Paige said hollowly.

"Do you feel like you're gonna be sick again?" Piper asked gently, rubbing her back lightly.

"Dunno," Paige shrugged. Piper frowned. Paige wasn't usually one for monosyllabic answers.

"Maybe one of us should stay with you," she offered.

"No, Piper. Phoebe needs you right now. You and Prue go; I'll be okay." Prue and Piper looked at each other, and nodded.

"We'll be right upstairs if you need us, okay?" Paige nodded. As soon as they were gone, she rose mechanically, padding down the hallway to the bedroom she shared with Phoebe. She sat lightly on the edge of the bed, looking around at the physical evidence of her life-- their life. The art they'd argued over, twisted sheets on the bed that hadn't been made; snapshots stuck in the edge of the mirror where they both looked so happy, Paige felt sure it couldn't be real. She laid her head down on the pillow, taking in a deep breath that smelled of Phoebe's shampoo.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the empty room.

Back in the Magic Shop, Willow and Tara were having a heated argument over a large book that lay open on the table, surrounded by piles of stinky herbs. Dawn and Xander were sitting between them, watching them yell as if they were at a tennis match, their eyes bobbing back and forth between the two witches.

"What other choice do we have, Tara?" Willow demanded, shaking the sprig of wormwood in her hand for emphasis. "The vanquishing spell is right here! This is what Faith wanted us to find!"

"Oh, so now you're taking orders from Faith?" Tara retorted, her face flushed as she brushed her hair back impatiently from her face. "This is magic, Will, not slaying. It's up to us to make sure we're doing the right thing here, and vanquishing Tawaret isn't it."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Willow exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "Just let her keep Phoebe prisoner forever? Or better yet, until she decides to kill her and her unborn baby?"

"You won't let that happen," Dawn said urgently, jumping up from her chair and gripping Tara's hands tightly. "Will you?" Her blue eyes were huge with terror.

"Of course not, Dawnie," Tara said gently, squeezing her hands back. "We'll figure this out, and Phoebe will be back safe and sound before you know it. Willow and I are just disagreeing over the best way to do it."

"Call me crazy," Willow said sardonically, "but I vote for vanquishing the demon who kidnapped her."

"I'm with Will on this one," Xander piped up meekly.

"But what if Tawaret isn't the real threat?" Tara persisted. "What if she's actually protecting Phoebe form something worse?"

"Protecting her!" Willow squeaked, rolling her eyes. "Tar, you heard what Faith said. The thing shimmered in, grabbed Phoebe, and took a slice out of her back before they both disappeared! Does that sound like any kind of protection you'd want?" Dawn pulled her hands from Tara's grip, and ran from the room. They all flinched at the sound of the door slamming.

"I know it doesn't make sense," Tara said quietly, all the fight gone from her voice. "I just...my gut feeling says that Tawaret isn't our enemy."

"Okay," Willow frowned, "maybe you're right...maybe there's more going on than we're seeing right now. But what if you're wrong? Don't you think it's better to be prepared?" Tara looked down at the table, where the open spell book showed an illustration of the many-toothed demon chasing the sun toward the horizon, in a chariot pulled by a dozen black horses with flaming red eyes. She nodded.

"Okay, then." Willow looked from Tara to Xander, her resolve face firmly in place. "Xan, call Faith back and tell her we'll have the vanquishing spell ready tonight."

Faith knocked lightly on the doorway to the attic before peeking her head in, where Prue and Piper were pouring over the Book of Shadows with expressions of deep concentration.

"Got something?" Prue asked hopefully, looking up from the book with tired eyes.

"Oh yeah," Faith nodded enthusiastically. "Red and Blondie are all over the vanquishing potion."

"Thank God," Piper sighed, closing the book. "I'm going to Magic School to check on Wyatt...then I'll check in with Leo and see if he's gotten any leads on how to track the demon."

"Sounds like a solid," Faith nodded. "Somebody should go tell Paige what's up."

"I will," Prue said grimly, folding her arms across her chest. "Maybe it'll help her snap out of this funk she's in to know we've at least got a plan." She crossed the room and padded down the stairs, while Faith and Piper stood discussing their strategy once the potion was finished and the demon located.

"Guys!" Prue hollered up the stairs. "We've got a problem!"

"Yeah, Prue, we're working on it," Piper said with a roll of her eyes.

"No..." Prue shook her head grimly, coming back into the attic with a piece of notebook paper in her hand. "I mean, a big problem." She shoved the note under Piper's nose, who glanced down with an expression of shocked disbelief dawning across her face.

"No way," she murmured, shaking her head.

"What?" Faith demanded, peering over Piper's shoulder. "Aw, hell."

"Paige is gone?" Piper said hollowly. "How could she just...when Phoebe needs her?"

"She thinks it's her fault, Pipe," Prue shrugged, shaking the note for emphasis. "She picked maybe the worst time for a massive insecurity attack, but obviously she thinks we'll do better rescuing Phoebe without her."

"How the bloody hell can she think that!" Piper fumed, running her fingers agitatedly through her hair. "She and Phoebe have saved each other more than all the rest of us combined!"

"She's freaking out about the baby," Faith shrugged, frowning. "She doesn't think she's strong enough to protect her kid, so she's leaving it to you guys, to do the whole _Power of Three _thing."

"Okay," Prue groaned, pressing a hand to her forehead. "I'm maxing out here. Leo!" A moment later Leo appeared, looking distracted.

"Have you found anything?" He asked hopefully.

"Right now we need you to find something," Piper said grimly. "Go find Paige; she took off on us."

"What?"

"No time for questions, Leo," Prue said with a wave of her hands. "Just go!" Obediently, Leo orbed out, his bewildered expression disappearing in a flash.

"I know we never have anything easy," Piper sighed, "But why does everything have to be so damn hard?"

"Please, My Lady, take this." A matronly priestess swathed in robes of pure white knelt before Phoebe, offering up a chalice filled with fragrant, blood red wine. "It will strengthen you for the coming battle."

"No thanks," Phoebe said coldly, curling up on the soft, pillow-strewn bed where she lay, in the middle of what appeared to be an enormous, ancient temple, the walls studded with magnificent jewels and adorned with gold-encrusted hieroglyphs, depicting scenes that seemed to Phoebe to be vaguely familiar. The wounds on her back had already been healed, but she still felt weak and extremely sick.

"My Lady, I apologize for any pain I have caused you," the priestess said again, bowing so low her nose almost grazed the alabaster floor. "Be assured I have acted only in the interest of your protection, and that of your child." Phoebe rolled over and glared at her, arms wrapped protectively over her stomach.

"You can't have her," she whispered, teeth gritted. Her skin was bone white, but her eyes blazed fiercely.

"I have no wish to take your child from you," the priestess said calmly. "My husband, on the other hand, would like nothing better than to raise the child of light for his own, and subvert her powers to reign over a world of eternal darkness." Phoebe blinked, confusion etched across her face as her eyebrows knit together.

"I don't..." Phoebe shook her head as a wave of intense nausea swept over her. She groaned and curled up tightly, eyes squeezed shut. "Paige," she whimpered. But Paige didn't appear.

"Please, my child," the priestess-- was this the same demon who attacked her?--held up the cup again. "Our time is short, and if you are to triumph you must strengthen yourself. I assure you that no dark magic resides here." Phoebe opened her eyes, and looked doubtfully down into the cup. Did Tawaret know that she was thinking of the last time she'd been kidnapped by a demon goddess and offered an unknown magical liquid?

"If you're not evil, then what's with aiming all the pointy parts at me? So far you've drunk my blood, made mincemeat of my back, and kidnapped me to a place that's obviously beyond the earthly plane. Why should I believe anything you say?"

"Please, My Lady, you must trust me," the priestess said, gripping Phoebe's hand urgently. "We haven't the time--"

"Well you better make time," Phoebe snapped, "because I--" With a gasp, she went rigid, her eyes rolling back. The world went black and white, and Phoebe saw an enormous demon, at least twelve feet tall, standing over her, unfurling massive eagle-like wings tipped with razor sharp claws. As he reached down to snatch her, Paige leapt in front of him, shielding Phoebe with her own body. Then she saw the razor-sharp talons sliding into Paige like she was made of butter, and poking out of her back. Blood poured down and spattered the floor at Phoebe's feet as Paige was lifted off the ground like a fish on a hook. She tried to scream, but her vocal cords were frozen. Opening her eyes, Phoebe's world was made momentarily blurry by tears.

"Oh, please," she whispered, shaking her head in numb horror as the kindly priestess held her hands tightly. "Please..."

"You can save your love, my child," the demon-- or was she something else?-- assured her, stroking her hair and holding up her cup again. "You may yet save us all. The power you now carry inside you is beyond anything you have ever known...and she is in peril."


	5. Chapter 5

**The Witching Hour**

**Part 5**

**By JewWitch**

Prue's eyes opened very slowly, blinking in the dazzling sunlight that made everything in her room seem a little bit fuzzy. Her mind drifted sleepily in and out of the shapes thrown onto the wall from the shadows of the curtains, as the waking world began to take shape. She looked across the room and saw Piper still asleep in the other bed, arms wound tight around Prue's favorite teddy bear. The impulse rose in Prue to go straight over and yank it from her three-year-old sister's sleeping arms, but it died before she'd even thrown off the covers. She _was_ mad at her sister. She wanted her teddy bear back. But...she didn't want Piper to wake up crying. And she certainly didn't want to be the _reason_ Piper woke up crying.

Instead, Prue wiggled out of bed and found her Bert and Ernie slippers, and padded quietly to the door, down the hall to the stairs, her hand thumping lightly against each rail in the banister as she went. By the time she reached the bottom step, she could see the back of her mother's head over the top of the couch. She smiled widely.

"Mommy," she said happily, and pattered quickly across the entryway of the manor, to the sunroom where her mother was nursing her new sister.

"Up already, little girl?" Her mother wrapped one arm around her as Prue burrowed against her side, barely feeling the baby's tiny feet resting on top of her head. "Is Piper up, too?"

"No, she's still dreaming." Prue sat up and looked dubiously at the tiny, wiggly creature her mother held so close in her other arm. It was basically just a lump of blankets with a head, and no hair.

"Did I look like that when I was a little baby?" Prue asked doubtfully.

"You certainly did, my love," Her mother answered with a smile. She held Prue's chin in her hand, and tilted her face gently to one side, her thumb stroking Prue's cheek lovingly. "You've grown into such a beautiful, big girl, do you know that?" Prue grinned shyly, and buried her face against her mother's side again. Then she turned and snuggled down on the couch, her head once again under the baby's feet. When Phoebe gave a particularly hard suck and kicked her tiny heels, Prue giggled.

"But she's so little!"

"Yes, and one day she'll be a big girl like you...but until then, you and Piper, and Grams and I, have to help her, and take care of her." Prue sat up suddenly, a huge grin on her face.

"Like how I showed Piper how to walk!" She beamed at the memory of the many afternoons she'd spent walking backwards around the living room, holding one-year-old Piper's hands in hers, Piper shrieking with laughter as she stumbled around after her big sister. Then, one day Prue had let go-- and Piper had stayed on her feet.

"That's right, Prue. You've been a very good big sister to Piper...and now you're Phoebe's big sister, too." Prue frowned thoughtfully.

"Piper's her big sister too," she pointed out. "Maybe Piper wants to teach her how to walk."

"There's plenty of time for that, darling," her mother smiled, kissing her on the top of her head. "Do you want to hold her?" Prue nodded eagerly, sitting up with her legs crossed and both arms resting on her knees, palm up, like her mother had shown her. "Here we go," Patty murmured, and the next thing she knew, Prue was holding all six pounds, seven ounces of Phoebe in her lap.

"Hi Phoebe," Prue cooed, staring down at the baby's huge brown eyes. They blinked at each other for a moment, silently. "She's _thinking!" _Prue announced, thunderstruck.

"Of course she is," Patty smiled.

"Does she know what we're saying?" Prue asked seriously.

"Not exactly," her mother explained, "she just knows the sounds of our voices."

"She knows who we are," Prue said confidently.

"Yes, baby girl, she knows we're her family." Prue nodded at her mother's words, staring intently into the baby's eyes again.

"Her eyes are so _big_," she murmured. "And dark," she added. The smile faded slightly from her mother's face then, and she laid a hand lightly on top of the baby's head.

"She's going to see a lot more than the rest of us," Patty sighed. Prue blinked up at her mother in confusion. "Prudence, you know that our family is very, very special." Prue nodded. "And we can do things that other people can't."

"With magic!" Prue agreed happily, resisting the urge to bounce up and down. She was still aware of her baby sister's tiny, fragile body resting in her arms.

"That's right."

"Like how I can move things, and you and Piper can freeze things."

"Yes, baby, exactly. Phoebe's power isn't going to be like that."

"You mean she doesn't get anything good?" Prue asked, frowning.

"No, I don't mean that," her mother said slowly, with a shake of her head. "Phoebe's power is very good...when you are all big girls together, her power is going to help lots and lots of people. But it won't be fun for her, the way yours and Piper's are. Of course, you're not supposed to _use_ your powers for fun..." Prue giggled as her mother poked her lightly in the ribs. "But Phoebe's going to see things before they happen."

"That sounds fun," Prue shrugged, imagining being able to see her Christmas presents in July.

"What if you saw Piper falling down and getting hurt?"

"I wouldn't want to see that," Prue said simply.

"Well Phoebe won't be able to choose what she sees," her mother explained. "She'll see a lot of bad things, Prue...she'll see where our magic is needed the most."

"And then we fix it?"

"Right."

"Cause we're good witches."

"We," Her mother grinned imperiously, "Are the _best_ witches." Prue giggled, then a funny, dizzy feeling came over her; she closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her mother was gone. An adult Phoebe sat next to her now, holding a tiny skeleton wrapped in a baby blanket close against her chest. Prue felt a sick, cold feeling plunging down into her stomach as she looked up into Phoebe's anguished eyes, the same eyes she'd been looking _down_ at moments before. She tried to reach out for her sister's arm, but she was frozen, completely unable to move or speak.

"Prue..." Phoebe whispered, tears running down her cheek and dripping onto the yellow baby blanket. "Why won't you help us?"

...Prue woke up sobbing, with her head buried in Faith's raven hair. The dream had been so real, so vivid in its sensory details...she could still smell her mother's perfume, and Phoebe's powdery infant freshness. Overcome with missing them both, she sobbed harder, clinging to her girlfriend's warm body with a dim awareness of Faith's voice in her ear.

"Sssh, baby, shh, it's okay...we're gonna get her back, P, I swear we are." Faith began to stroke Prue's sleek black hair as she spoke, lulling Prue from her state of fevered agitation.

"How could I let this happen?" Prue choked. It had been over a week since Phoebe had been snatched right from under their noses, and Paige had disappeared. Each day that they searched, and scryed, and hunted, Prue felt her heart growing heavier with despair. "I'm supposed to protect this family."

"Prue," Faith said patiently, marking the seriousness of her words by actually using her girlfriend's name, "This is not your fault, and you know it. Don't torture yourself, please?"

"I can't help it," Prue mumbled with a shake of her head. "I keep dreaming about when Phoebe was a baby...and then I drop her, or I let her drown, or I'm not holding her right and she breaks her neck...and I keep seeing her eyes, those huge, baby Phoebe eyes, just staring up at me in shock, like: _how could you let me die?"_

"Hey." Faith grabbed Prue by the shoulders, letting her girlfriend feel a little more of her slayer strength than she normally would have. "Phoebe is _not_ dead, Prue. Don't you go burying her. She is still out there, and she still needs you, so don't start the pity party just yet."

"You're right, Fai," Prue sighed, her ice blue eyes hardening with fresh resolve as she wiped her damp cheeks roughly.

"Damn straight." Prue snickered at her girlfriend's typical bravado.

"You're a piece of work, you know that?"

"Yeah, but that's why you love me," Faith teased. Then her grin froze, sliding into an expression of absolute terror that Prue had never seen her wear before-- even when facing the most monstrous of demons. "I mean--" Faith stuttered, "I-- I-- I didn't mean--" Prue leaned forward and silenced her girlfriend with a very firm kiss, holding Faith's face with both hands. Sometimes Faith was very aggressive-- she was a slayer, an alpha dog if ever there was one. And Prue liked that...she liked it a lot. But sometimes (like now) Prue sensed that her slayer needed to know she could turn the tables anytime she wanted to. After they'd broken apart, Prue leaned down and whispered with a hot breath in Faith's ear-- "That's exactly why I love you." Faith leaned her head against Prue's lips, an incoherent sound coming form the back of her throat. Then she turned and pinned Prue on the mattress beneath her, kissing her with a gentleness completely at odds with the strength holding Prue's hips in place. With one long, low sigh of pleasure, Prue squinted and threw Faith off her with her powers, pinning her girlfriend back against the headboard, arms above her head as if she were handcuffed.

"Hey!" Faith's outraged expression only served to increase Prue's delighted grin.

"What's the matter, Faithy? You can dish it out, but you can't take it?" Prue's grin took on a decidedly sultry edge as she teased her girlfriend, crawling up her body and brushing her exposed skin with her breasts. Faith's back arched, the only part of her body that she could really move.

"Goddamit, P, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Faith snarled, struggling against the magic that held her down. Prue's smile half-slid off her face, and she looked down, releasing Faith's arms from the headboard.

"The same thing you do to me all the time," She said coldly. "Remember?"

"But I thought you _liked_ it!" Faith exclaimed plaintively, her eyes wide and overwrought, looking like a confused child.

"I _do_ like it, Fai," Prue assured her, crawling into the space beside her anxious girlfriend and curling up against her shoulder. "That's why I wanted you to get a turn, too." She looked up, winding a lock of Faith's wavy brown hair around her finger. "But if you don't want to..."

"No--" Faith shook her head-- "I mean, _yes_--" she sighed in exasperation. "I do want to. I want you to be, y'know, in charge sometimes. I just didn't know...how scary it would feel." Faith looked down at her hands at this admission.

"Oh, honey!" Prue cried, holding Faith's face in her hands, a look of bewildered shock on her face. "You know I'd never, ever do anything to hurt you. Don't you?"

"Yeah," Faith shrugged, her dark eyes looking back earnestly into Prue's stormy blue ones. "But you _could_. ...That's not something I ever had to think about, before." Prue could sense what this admission cost her girlfriend, sensed how vulnerable she was allowing herself to be, maybe for the first time. She wasn't sure what to say.

"I promise I'll never hurt you on purpose." They both realized they were no longer talking about who was more aggressive in bed.

"Me too," Faith said quietly, stroking Prue's long, raven-black hair. She smiled softly to herself as Prue leaned over to kiss her. _At least I took her mind off her sister_, she thought to herself. _Where the hell are you, Phoebe?_


End file.
